(Hey man!! I do not invent this stuff.Since Jones is unsure about us being allowedto drink alcohol, he might disagree.Oh Well!)

A little bit of alcohol might help your brain clean itself, new researchpublished Friday in Scientific Reports suggests. The research was donein mice, so it’s impossible to say if the benefit is the same forhumans. But still.

We already knew that alcohol has some health benefits, Dr. MaikenNedergaard told Newsweek. “Except for a few types of cancer, includingunfortunately breast cancer, alcohol is good for almost everything,”said Nedergaard, the director of the Center for TranslationalNeuromedicine at the University of Rochester Medical Center.

Nedergaard has studied the glymphatic system, a recently discoveredsystem that helps clear waste from the body, since 2012. Her team wasalso responsible for a 2013 paper showing that sleep was necessary forthe system to function.

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Their latest work found that low amounts of alcohol could help theglymphatic system work better. In the study, mice were given a “lowlevel” of alcohol, the equivalent of two-and-a half-drinks. Compared tomice who were not given the alcohol, the glymphatic systems of theexperimental group showed improved function.

But there’s more to the study than that, she said. The researchers foundthat supportive cells of the brain known as glial cells appeared lessinflamed among mice given low doses of alcohol compared to controls.“This might be what I’m most surprised about.” Nedergaard thinks thismechanism could explain why the mice’s glymphatic systems were workingbetter.

Seeing an improvement among the mice given alcohol went againstexpectations. “Normally, when you do a study, your control mice are theones who are doing best,” Nedergaard explained. “It’s hard to improvesomething that’s already healthy,” she said. She and her team repeatedthe experiment a few times to make sure the results turned out the same;they did.

The results are not necessarily an excuse to go for that third glass ofwine. “Of course, we cannot say anything about humans because mice aredifferent. They have a much faster metabolism,” Nedergaard said. “Ifanything, it should be a lower amount in humans.” Also, mice that weregiven higher levels of alcohol showed signs that their glymphaticsystems were working more poorly.

Alcohol is included in the national dietary guidelines. Studies haveshown that moderate drinking can decrease the risk for heart disease andstroke. Researchers at Louisiana State University reiterated that in astudy published Thursday that showed antioxidants, like the ones in redwine, may improve stents. However, the number of drinks per day thatwould make someone a “moderate” drinker may seem disappointing: just onedrink for women and two for men. And the new study from Nedergaard andcolleagues reinforces that heavy drinking is bad for your health.

To reduce the chance of abusing alcohol, the National Institute onAlcohol Abuse and Alcoholism recommends women shouldn’t have more thanseven drinks per week and men shouldn’t have more than 14; bingedrinking is defined as having more than four or five drinks within a fewhours for women and men, respectively.